I am pretty tired. I don’t usually say that on my blog but it’s the truth. The information download this training has been so great for me that I am really starting to feel I know nothing….

So how appropriate that the day started with feeling. The most important thing in good health is attitude. Our relationship with our student/client is not so much about what we just do and say but about what kind of energy we put out. If you are tired or sick how do you work on people without getting drained? How do you work on people that are energetically pretty low without getting dragged down with them?

Years ago John talked about taking the seat of teacher in an immersion. In many ways it is no different in therapy. You have to make yourself a pillar of light that can go into other people’s energetic field to be sensitive to what they are feeling but not to be dragged into it. I had one student that used to drain me ( John called them energetic vampires!lol). She was so energetically negative that I would be so happy when she would not come to class. It wasn’t until I truly took the seat of the teacher, both energetically and mentally, that she no longer had that pull on me. I could teach her unaffected. So it goes with therapy.

You have to prepare to touch people- you are in an energetic relationship. You need to have your own physical practice to keep your body strong and your own spiritual practice to keep your light strong. I have a little ritual I go through before I start therapy sessions of washing my hands and visualizing the light in side of me and then making a subtle barrier on that light so I can shine it out to be more sensitive to what I see, feel and touch but that it cannot be affected by what I encounter. I think of a hurricane lamp- lots of light but the wind cannot blow it out. You have to make yourself a great big energetic field of light. I also pray, ” Grace please come help me help this person”- and if I do help them in some small way I give that back to Grace as well…. and my teachers. John had a great way of putting it,” You are tethered to the Universal as you come into their field”. I love that.

We transmit Shakti or energy in 4 ways~

1) Touch

2) Eyes

3) Voice and words

4) Will or Intention

This is interesting to me because unknowingly I have been doing this and watching what I say and think during a session. This is intuitive- all of us have a level of intuition and psychic power but we tend to dismiss it. Learning to trust this again and use it is very important.

We started the morning working on sensitivity exercises to see if we could tell stuff about another person holding hands with our eyes closed. People were surprisingly accurate- it was very cool. We then worked on shoulders and getting the inner and outer deltoid to move at the same rate as the arms go over head. We were supine on the floor for these so it was nice to practice options for clients who don’t have the stamina to stand for so long.

Urdva dhanurasanna backbends were next. We then worked on back bends on the wall on blocks for students who cannot get their forearms parallel to the floor. One of things John mentioned was that we can take the blocks wider to help them with the arms. We also talked about legs in backbends and two things came up: 1) burning thighs and knees- more muscle energy on the underside of the leg by pulling the heels towards the pelvis more 2) sore back from legs splaying out- make sure the outer thigh and inner thigh are moving at the same rate as it is more likely that the inner thigh will move faster ( too much outer spiral) . The last thing we talked about was necks in backbends. One of the girls had herniated discs so John made her go very slow and created the curve of her cervical and kept it the whole way through the back bend. Stopping on the top of the head and rooting the forehead and keeping the head back all the way up and then coming back to the forehead before coming all the way down was key.The neck discussion led into some great neck therapy by creating curve first and then length- one hand wrapped around the occiput and one hand on the forehead. It felt great!

In the afternoon we looked at friends who had Fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and other auto immune disorders. It was actually a very emotional afternoon. Most of our other friends had been guys with some mechanical stuff but the stories this afternoon were very deep and so was their pain. The skin on one of the friends was spongy and felt distinctly different to the touch ( I have to go by what John and another student were saying). It was like there was a spongy layer before the muscle. As John said, it was like the facia had actually come away from the muscle and bone in the trauma of their accidents. To touch it softly was painful but when the pressure was applied evenly and the skin, fascia and muscle where brought right to the bone and held it brought relief and you could, after a few minutes of therapy, feel a change in the quality of the skin and layers underneath- a firming and holding.

One of the other points that was brought to our attention is how the student lays down and gets up after therapy- especially with neck issues. Getting them to roll to the side to transition is much better. Their hands when on their bellies should also be forward or under their heads as when the arms are along side the body the head of the shoulder tends to drop. Great little observation things.

One of the friends today cried. John talked about how it is important to let them cry or breathe through their mouth to let that old stuff clear but to remind them of the positive. “That incident is over now and I am going to try to help you the best I can and now is going to be the time to heal.” ” Let the new form take shape and let the old stuff clear out” such a beautiful way to honour the client but encourage healing….

The last part of the afternoon was a crazy hodgepodge of stuff that was all so great but I have no time to write all up. Lets see if I can condense it.

Concussion/head injury– squeeze uniformly on the fascia of the head to take pressure off

Thyroid– shoulder stand or Viparittakarani to get the glands working more effectively and getting blood to flow the other way. Make sure the kidneys are supported in legs up the wall.

Low blood pressure/ dizziness– keep curve of the neck especially in uttanasana- take the time to create that at the half way mark.

Restless leg syndrome– work on the pelvis to get the energy going downward ( apanavayu)

The last task of the day was homework: Here is the scenario~

Our friend was struck by a large heavy wooden lid of her hot tub while lying in it. It struck her on the top of the head and pushed her down into the water as the lid closed on top of her. It was February of this year. She had a concussion. Now her arms are constantly aching in no particular area ( systemic) and she has difficulty raising her arms above her head. She gets headaches 1-2 a week.

Make her a 15 minute routine.

You can do this at home with all of us here and I will share on tomorrow’s blog what we call came up with and you can comment on what you thought might be appropriate.

Good luck- we can compare answers tomorrow!

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2 Responses to “Maui Therapy Training Oct/2010 Day 4”

What a beautiful entry! I am not a yoga teacher (yet) but I can see where the idea of making yourself a light and coming into that place could help in many areas — we often have energy vampires in many aspects of our life, and I love this way of being in a place where someone else’s energy does not affect yours.